It takes considerable time to write a good report or tender, and its presentation is equally important since, when information in paper form is sent out or offered, first impressions determine to a considerable extent whether the recipient will continue reading it. After all, people have to make choices, for they often cannot read through everything which they receive, because ever more information is being sent. To put it briefly, the appearance--that is to say the packaging of the information--must look tidy and distinguishing and, as it were, compel further reading.
The progress of automation means that more and more people work in businesses with a PC and printer and will more and more have to or wish to bind the printed material themselves to form a presentable package. A large number of covering and binding systems are known for packaging loose leafed information, or actually binding it to form a small book with a rigid cover. A number of these can be carried out exclusively by professional binders in the graphics industry (for example fastening a number of sheets on a score line, as is used in periodicals), since specialist equipment is required. There is a considerably smaller number of options available to office workers, and these often require many operations and thus take a relatively large amount of working time, and as a consequence are extremely costly. This is particularly true of letters or reports comprising a smaller number of pages, since the number of operations and the possible waiting time remains the same whether 15 pages or 45 pages are being bound. Furthermore, it has emerged in practice that a considerable number of letters, contracts, reports, tenders, statements, budgets, etc. of 10 to 15 pages are being produced.
One of the binding methods used in offices for this purpose is the A3-cover made of plastic and/or cardboard, the spine of which is provided on the inside with a thermoplastic adhesive, by means of which the loose A4 sheets can be glued together in the spine. Another known method is the spiral binding of loose pages by means of a plastic or metal spiral in the left-hand margin of the page, having an A4 board on the front and back sides of the booklet as a finishing means. Still further methods are based on holding together loose pages by means of one, two or more perforations in a cover, usually having a transparent front. Yet another known method is to fasten together loose pages at two points near the score line in an A3 cardboard cover which has been folded in two. Naturally, each method has its own charm and characteristics which benefit or impair the user's impression and the ease of use, including the ease of reading and leafing through.
A drawback of the "glued spine cover" is that it requires a special heating apparatus, which is generally not within the immediate reach of everyone in an office environment. Various files are available, each having a characteristic spine thickness, in which a certain maximum number of sheets can be glued. The drawback of these is that the spine is virtually always too high. Furthermore, heating up the apparatus and heating the glued spine to the operating temperature require some minutes of costly working time. After binding, a period of a few minutes is again required, for which purpose the bound file has to be put down again at another location in order to cool. The user will thus have to walk to and fro from his/her workstation to the apparatus or remain waiting at the apparatus. These aspects make the use of glued spine covers extremely laborious and costly with regard to the working time taken up. Moreover, there is a risk that the apparatus will already be in use, necessitating yet more waiting or walking. The solution to this is to provide more apparatus, or automatic apparatus, but this is an expensive solution, resulting in higher investment and depreciation, yet more maintenance, power consumption, more intermediate stocks, more space taken up at more workstations, and yet no improvement in the binding result.
A specific drawback of the "spiral method" is that in particular thin reports, even when bound with the thinnest spiral in order to provide a pleasant cover sheet, require a relatively thick spine, which causes problems during dispatch, filing and stacking. Different spiral sizes entail stock control. Also, a specific apparatus, which is always situated away from the workstation, is used to attach the spiral, which again represents a considerable (hidden) drawback due to inefficient use of time. This makes spiral binding expensive, even though the spirals themselves are relatively cheap.
A significant drawback common to the covers, although to a lesser extent for the "attached cover", is that it is unsuitable, from the point of view of style, ease of reading and aesthetic considerations, to use the said covers for presenting an offering of only a few pages. A three-page letter simply does not fit aesthetically in a glued spine, spiral or perforated cover. Yet another drawback for the glued spine, attached and perforated cover is that each page first has to be folded flat over the entire length after turning over. Otherwise the tender will continuously fall or snap shut automatically. This takes up the time, attention and effort of the reader, which is of course detrimental to reading the contents. Moreover, in all these binding methods a significant part of the left-hand blank margin is lost precisely as a result of the binding and in particular with a second page after the top page has been folded over. Additionally, there is the risk in the glued spine cover that the sheets will come unstuck during folding or copying. A further drawback common to these binding methods is that it is difficult and/or laborious, or even impossible, to return material which has already been bound to a loose-leafed form, let alone to reuse it decently, since the loose pages are damaged either by holes or by residues of adhesive. It would be useful to be able to do this in practice, for example for a data compiler, in order to be able to exchange even one page containing an error or in order to be able to add a page. In practice, the report is often reprinted (waste of time, toner and paper), rebound and the old covers and their contents, etc. have to be placed in the waste paper. Another drawback common to all known methods is the problem of accommodating the covers in a document file. In the case of the attached and perforated covers, this is because the places where the holes need to be made are already occupied and the cover will thus have to be removed first. This also applies to the spiral cover, owing to the thickness of the spiral. Although the glued spine cover is not subject to this problem, it has the drawback that the cover will first have to be taken out of the document file before it becomes easy to read and leaf through.
The invention takes as the state of the art upon which the precharacterizing parts of claims 1 and 6, respectively, are readable, U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,530, to wit FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively, thereof.
The object of the invention disclosed in the just-mentioned U.S. patent was to eliminate these drawbacks to a large extent, or completely, and to provide a new principle for a cover which is user-friendly and can be attached quickly and easily, sitting behind a desk, without requiring a machine.
According to this U.S. patent publication two lips are formed in the cover by means of incisions (FIG. 1) or two cut-outs are made (FIG. 2), both along the length of the spine. In this way the contents can be held together from the spine. This is done by means of a pair of resilient steel clips having operating arms, these clips being of the so-called butterfly type. The lip thus formed or the cut-out formed extends up to the last scored groove, so it is contiguous with the back leaf. As a consequence of this, the lip will always present a series of score lines. At the front the apertures created should have such dimensions that when opening the front leaf, the upper operating arm can be passed freely.
From the point of view of the present invention this system presents a number of disadvantages, the most important of which are the following:
The clips will make the entire left hand margin of all sheets comprising the contents, except the first sheet, invisible by the previous sheet.
The margin area thus covered ("blind" area) is made wider yet by the embodiment having the lips below the clips proper, so that in many cases even text within a generally accepted type page will be covered partly.
This phenomenon still increases to the extent that the reader will leaf through the contents because each successive sheet is turned over at an increasing distance from this point.
The just mentioned disadvantage can only be kept at a minimum by folding each sheet as sharp as possible; not only will this cause some trouble, but it will also result in all sheets, after taking the bundle of sheets apart--which, according to the purpose of the system, is to remain possible--will present a fold.
The pages which have been turned over will, despite folding, remain inclined to fall back again, so that reading must be interrupted from time to time in order to prevent this closing of the reading matter, or one must actively keep the booklet open, which detracts from attention to the reading.
In order to ensure that, when the front leaf of the cover is opened, the upper most operating arms will be passed freely, the clips must be pushed on entirely up to the spine and they should remain in this position. This requires means such as an embossed portion or a narrow slot. It also entails that the clips must be placed carefully.
It is required to always use two clips, which entails double labour.